Why hasn't Sikhi spread? St Georges uni Q&A #1

Everything has a reason.

History is one of the major reasons.

Guru Nanak Dev Ji Maharaj -
They came with a message.

They spread it.

There was no Sikhi before them.

There were people that were talking
philosophies that were similar to this.

But it wasn't a holistic approach
like the one Guru Ji brought.

They spread it.
All the Gurus spread it.

Guru Amar Das Ji set up 150 preachers -
52 were women.

They sent women out
to preach Sikhi.

Their daughters were preachers.

So the Gurus are very big preachers.

Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji went out preaching to
Assam - places far away from Central.

Look at Patna Sahib, it's not near Punjab.

Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji set that up,

as a place for loads for
Sikhs at Patna Sahib.

Hazur Sahib - Guru Gobind Singh Ji
set that up around that area.

So, the Gurus all travelled.
They went out spreading Sikhi.

They sent people out to Afghanistan
and places like that to spread Sikhi.

Now, what’s happened since 1745,
The 1740s, is -

Baba Deep Singh Ji for example, they
wrote out Guru Granth Sahib Ji in Arabic.

They sent it out -
they were keen to preach Sikhi.

Sikhs didn’t used to say
“We don’t preach."

Now what’s happened is, most of us say
“We don’t preach”.

Do you agree with that?

Nowadays most Sikhs say
“We don’t preach”.

Who do you think told us
we don’t preach?

Our Gurus never said it.
The Gurus actually went out to preach.

They travelled everywhere.

Guru Ji went to Sri Lanka.
They went all over.

So who told us that we don’t preach?

The British.

The British came to Punjab.
Took over the Punjab Kingdom in 1850s.

So from 1745, from the Guru’s time -

what you see from 1708 is the Sikhs
being persecuted.

And even when they’re persecuted
they’re still bringing it up.

Let’s say you go from 1400s upto 1700.

It’s the Guru Period.
Sikhi is growing, it’s great.

For the next 100 years, upto 1800
you have got persecution.

Sikhs being killed everywhere.

1900s - what you’ve got is the
British coming over.

In the 1850s, they took over
and what did they do?

They started to destroy Sikhi.

They started to kill all the Nihang Singhs
- as many as they could,

that believed in the
Shastardhari Khalsa way.

They killed a lot of them.

They fought against them and
they killed them.

Also, they started to preach Christianity.

And they told us lot -
like a Jedi mind trick

Have you seen Star Wars?

Where he goes
“These are not the droids you seek.”

They go
“These are not the droids that we seek.”

It's a Jedi mind trick. They say
“You guys, don’t preach your religion.”

And we went
“We don't preach our religion.”

And that was it.
It became a Punjabi religion.

It no longer became an Indian religion,
spreading out in the whole of India.

It became a Punjabi religion.

The British made us into Punjabis.

They moved us away from Sikhi
into Punjabis.

They said you guys all live in Punjab,
you guys have got your geography.

Because the British were very good
at categorizing what people were.

And then you got votes
based upon who you were.

So they said:
“You guys are Hindus, you guys are Sikhs,

you don’t want to
spread out here

and take over the Hindus
or become bigger.

You stay where you are - Punjab."

Basically the British told us
that we don’t preach.

Since 1850, when they
took over Ranjit Singh's Raj (Rule),

then they said
“You guys join the British army”.

Become Sikhs in the Army, so now
we got institutionalised.

Took Amrit but we follow the British way.

The British said “You guys are warriors”.
We said “Yes we’re warriors”.

We had Mahapurkhs and Sanths,
but they said you guys are warrior race,

so we started believing
we're a warrior race.

But we’re not a race.

We’re a Dharam.

Punjabis might be a race.
We are not a race.

We are people that follow the philosophy
of Guru Nanak Dev Ji Maharaj.

The teachings of Guru Nanak Dev Ji.

We are a Chela.
We are Chele of the Guru.

We are not a race.

We have characteristics, we have a culture
that comes from our Gurus.

But anybody can join -
you can’t change a race, can you?

You can now if you become a Sikh.
It’s a weird system.

Anyway the point is that Sikhi was
constricted by them

and limited off to one place.

Then since India Independence
you've seen what's happened in Punjab.

The race thinking was stuck there,
people thought we’re Punjabis.

And then Indian people when they
got independence,

they messed the Sikhs over.

Took away the land and then split Punjab.

Punjab used to look a bit
like a butterfly.

Now guess how much of it remains.

First they chopped off two wings.

Then from this wing they chopped off
here and there.

Now you’ve got this much -
like the left hand side heart.

Even Lahore, the Capital of the Sikh
Kingdom in Ranjit Singh’s time -

is now in Pakistan.

Ranjit Singh’s Raj was in Lahore.

Amritsar was a Spiritual Capital for us.
It was the Sikh Capital.

But not the Political Kingdom of the Raj.

So they're basically massively split and
since 1984 you’ve seen what’s happened.

They’re trying to
kill Sikhi off in Punjab.

So firstly we've had external enemies
suppressing us.

Also internally our thinking
has gotten changed.

They changed our thinking to not think
that we are an expansionist religion.

But Guru Sahib was very expansionist.

You don't appoint 150 preachers if you
don’t intend to expand.

You don’t send Bhai Gunda Ji to
Afghanistan to preach,

if you don't want to bring in people from
Afghanistan into Sikhi.

Guru Ji did that.

Look around us, what are we doing?

Us British Sikhs -
the bastion of Sikhi in the world.

We are really doing great stuff here
in our Gurudware, aren’t we?

The youth don't understand Sikhi.

The committees are too involved
in fighting amongst themselves.

Every Gurudwara is trying to build
an even bigger Gurudwara,

rather than teach classes.

You can go to a Gurudwara nowadays
and you will have amazing halls

and stain glass windows,
amazing wooden architecture.

You can't find a classroom.

You're like “Hold on,
you say Guru is my teacher"

“You say a Sikh is a student."

Where are the classes?

How many of you can go
to your local Gurudwara

and sign up for a course on Sikhi?

Say a 6 week course, 12 week course -
can you sign up for one?

How many of you think you can
sign up for one of those in a mosque?

How many institutions do you think
exist in this country

to teach Islam to newcomers?

Quite a lot.

How many exist to teach
Sikhi to a newcomer?

Very little. Nothing.

People are white and Sikh and
people are black who are Sikh -

but they are only through luck.

None of them ever got approached by
someone and said " You should be a Sikh”.

“You’ve got the right mentality."

We never approach them.

Maharaaj goes around travelling,
looking for Gurmukhs.

We are scared to follow Sikhi ourselves.

We're not those kind of people that walk
around saying the Praise of our Doctor.

If you go to a doctor in the world
and he fixes you,

100% if you meet somebody else who’s
got the same disease as you,

you're going to tell that person
go to that doctor, aren’t you?

Of course you will.

We don't believe in our doctor
all the time.

We don't follow our doctor.

We find it very hard to go and tell
other people to follow this doctor.

But if we really cared about that person
and they are diseased and they have ego.

What’s the solution then?

You will earn the Guru's words,
the Guru’s Bani.

What does it mean to earn Bani?

It means to live it.

You’ve got the instructions,
now you follow them.

So we don't really believe in
spreading this either.

In this class, most of you guys know
about Dasam Duar?

I’m not criticising you.

Obviously who are you to blame?
Who’s to blame?

Our leadership.

Our leaders who say that “We are
the caretakers of the Guru's School."

Because the Guru is a Teacher
so it must be a school.

They said we’re the school caretakers.
Guess who runs the school?

Not a head teacher.

The only person worthy of running a school
is a head teacher.

You agree with me?

Would you put the administrators
in charge of a school? No.

Who should run a school?

Somebody who's worked on the ground
all the way up to become a head teacher.

Who is concerned about teaching.

How many people in their Gurudwara have
seen their Pardhaans do talks about Sikhi?

How many Pardhaans, on a regular basis,

come into the Gurudwara and
teach Sikhi to the Sangat?

How many of them are involved in running
charities or Seva projects?

So how come they run the Gurudware?

The administrators have got into the
Gurudwara and started running Gurudware.

Admin people.
What do you think a Secretary is?

Admin person.

President is not a president.

He's the main person who runs all
the admin people.

The real people who run a Gurudwara,

are the people that are either teaching
Kirtan or singing Kirtan,

or reading the Paath,
explaining the Paath.

Or making the Langar, or doing all the
dishes and cleaning and washing up.

They're the people that make the
Gurudwara run.

These people that sit up in an office,
they don't make the Gurudwara run.

They’re the admin people.
Now the admin people run the Gurudwara.

So we've got "the tail wagging the dog”.
You heard that saying?

They’re supposed to be wagged by the dog
but unfortunately they’re wagging the dog.

They tell the Bhatti -
who knows the Paath:

This guy knows more Bani than all those
people sitting on the table,

and he’s bringing them cups of tea.

You can see what's happening now.

So it’s our fault as well.

These Gurudware are messed up.
We're not doing anything ourselves.

And it's on you guys.

I’m sorry to put it on you,
I see it's upon me as well.

I don't see myself as
different from you.

The only difference me and you is
about 10 years - that's nothing really.

I see you guys having the same
responsibility that I have.

Learn some of this knowledge.

I didn't get this from magic.
It isn't that hard.

13 years ago I didn't know
the Gurmukhi alphabet.

I didn't understand
a single bit of Bani.

13 years from now you could be
teaching people across the globe as well.

Sikhi is easy to follow and live.

It’s difficult and simple as well,
it's both.

It can't be classified.

It's on your responsibility as well.

If you see a problem, solve it.

We saw a problem - no one knew what
Sikhi was so we made those leaflets.

Singh sitting here did all the
graphic design and made it.

We could have put anything in there,
nothing’s complicated in there.

One God. One human race.
You can connect to God.

Guru Nanak Dev ji travelled.
Guru Arjan Dev Ji made Harmandir Sahib.

Guru Hargobind Sahib Ji made a mosque.

Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji gave Shaheedi.

That’s just basics and that's why
it’s called Basics of Sikhi.

People don't know the basics.

We have Langar, Raag Kirtan,
Guru Granth Sahib Ji.

Job done.
Go on YouTube and learn more.

You see a problem in this
house of Guru Nanak Dev Ji -

try to fix the problem.

Don’t just say
“How come Sikhi has not spread?”

Say “How can I spread Sikhi?”

It's not that hard.
People buy Sikhi.

We’ve had people become Sikhs.

Would you believe it?
white and black people.

They started watching these videos and
they go “I want to be a Sikh.”

“How do I become a Sikh?”

We had people message us and say
"I want to be a Sikh."

I read that email out to you recently.
Some guy from California - he emailed us.

He goes “I watch your videos,
I want to be a Sikh."

He said:
“It was amazing. It changed my life."

Now I didn't change his life, did I?

Who am I to change anybody’s life?

He changed my life.

I'm plugging the doctor.

They say
"I want to have that doctor as well”.

That is what’s happening here.

People are saying
“I want that guy as my doctor as well"

"I think He can fix me."

And He can fix them.

But this is just one channel.

How many channels do you think exist
to preach Islam?

How many channels do you think exist
to preach Christianity?

The major religions.
Let’s look at the major religions.

How many of the Buddhists travel
around the world meeting the top leaders?

Buddhist is a big religion as well.
They’ve got a billion of them.

How many thousand years did it take them?

We’ve only been around for 500 years.
Most of that has been under conflict.

Where we are now, we're not teaching the
meaning of it to most people.

Our Gurudware are run by the wrong people.

If we change that around in
the next 100 years, Sikhi would fly.

Change the leadership into
people that follow Sikhi.

Make the focus about spreading and
explaining Sikhi to everybody else -

like we do Street Parchar.

Have you seen those videos
about Street Parchar?

Do that, in every city, every town.

Have open days, bring people in,
invite them, teach them the meanings.

Explain it simply like this.

This is your disease.
This is the problem you’re suffering.

The real root cause is this “Ego”.

You will be able to solve this
if you connect to God.

You have this on top of your head
(Dasam Duar) - let’s meditate.

Why don't you do some Seva?

Go serve some food to people.
You will feel better about yourself.

You feel good if you do Seva.

They do this and they go
“Sikhi really works."

I feel connected to God.
I feel like I'm a better person.

I'm starting to lose my connection and
when I say “Vaheguru”, I feel great.

I feel Bliss.

The Khalsa won’t be oppressed.

It won’t be the bottom of someone's shoe
like it is now.

It will rule the world.

Who will rule?
The Khalsa.

But do we even know what the Khalsa is?

This is what the Khalsa starts off with.

A diseased person that wants to get better
goes to the Guru and says sort me out.

Make me like you .
Make me free of this disease.

Save me.

It's history.
It's our problem.

The solution is there as well,
how to solve it - it’s all there.